ComplaintsforPennbriar Athletic Club

• Initial Complaint

  09/06/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My husband and I have been members of Pennbriar for about 4 years now. When we joined the club the hours of operation fit our schedule and we were able to walk laps in the pool in the evenings and on the weekends. Recently they have new owners and they keep changing the hours. For the summer they posted a sign on the door saying they were going to be closed on Sundays for the summer which we were upset about because we were paying the same price and losing one day a week that we could use the facility. A few days before Labor day they posted a sign on the door saying they had new fall and winter hours which made it so that we were no longer able to use the facility with times that fit into our schedule. We were there in the evenings from anywhere from 5:30-8:30 Mon-Thur, 5:30-7:30 on Friday and 1-3 Saturday and Sunday. Their new hours now close at 8 PM Mon- Thurs, 6 pm on Fridays and 2 pm on Saturday and 12 pm on Sunday. The pool closes half an hour before the rest of the gym so that limits our time even more. I emailed the manager after complaining several times to the people at the front desk that these new hours didn't work for us. I let her know that we needed to either cancel our membership or put it on hold until they went back to the normal hours and asked if she knew when that would be. She replied back and said that we are not able to cancel our membership unless we moved out of the area and we were only able to put our membership on hold due to medical reasons. I know this is not accurate because another member who traveled overseas to visit family was able to put her membership on hold. Regardless, it is ridiculous for them to change their hours and still expect people to pay for services they are no longer able to use. When I let her know that I was going to cancel the credit card that the automatic payment comes out of it, she said she would send my account to a collection agency. This is not right or fair. All I want is our membership cancelled without consequences due to their changing of hours. If they would have stayed open the normal hours then we would not need to cancel our membership. If these were the hours when we joined the gym we NEVER would have joined it.

  Business response

  09/06/2023

  Good Morning,

  I will start off by saying that all of our contracts are one year contracts and when people sign them they are liable to complete that contract. Everyone is made aware of that and signs that they have read it and unfortunately, changing hours or even utilization is said no where in our contract that could be a reason to cancel. That being said, our business had to make some decisions for financial reasons and we have only a couple of people that utilize those times and it is not feasible to keep open with no one here. We are still open 7 days a week for our members and there is plenty of time to find to get here. 

  Thank you 

  Denise S****

  Customer response

  09/06/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  *** ****** ** ** ******** **** ****** ** * ****** ** ***** **** ** **** **** **** ** *** ********
  Regards,
  
  ***** ********

• Initial Complaint

  10/24/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  To whom it may concern. I've been a member at pennbriar since January 2021. Since I have been then the facility has failed to maintain cleanliness or repair broken equipment. Cleanliness is a major health concern. The roof of the facility has been leaking for several years and is a well known issue within the members and facility. There has been no repair effort made. This spring we realized how bad it was when the drop ceiling supports were rusted through allowing moisture soaked tiles covered in mold to fall through, break, or be pulled to the wall and left to sit with multiple buckets underneath to catch the water. It's difficult to walk near without your throat feeling scratchy. Failed equipment is another major issue and one that I have brought up within the last few months. Broken squat racks, bent dumbbells and barbells, rubber floor torn and not glued down. I have personally witnessed an elder member trip over the rubber floor and almost fall into the dumbbell rack. I brought this up to the front desk stating my worry and was then aggressively confronted when mentioning I felt it unfair to be bound to a contract when the gym wasn't making any effort to provide a safe workout environment. I was told on multiple occasions that "we will be under new ownership soon, maybe they will fix it, sorry." As well as "our contract does not state you are allowed to leave the gym if we do not maintain a safe workout environment." They are fully aware of their facilities conditions but unwilling to work with any of their members or make steps towards improvement. The only thing that was fixed was a pad on a leg press machine that had a hole in the lumbar support. But only because it was brought up by myself and other members. Neither of the other two have been repaired. Other broken items are, the steam room which has remained closed since 2020, the basketball court is closed due to rain and snow quite often. They state this are valued points of membership. Thank you,

  Business response

  10/25/2022

  I am not sure why he says things about the cleanliness we have housekeeping staff and they are cleaning all of the time. We also still fog spray to disinfect all of our equipment and rooms. We are well aware of the roof and we have a very large building here and half of the roof was fixed last year and we are in the process of redoing the other half which is the fitness floor. There is absolutely no mold or mildew anywhere when things get wet we have it cleaned every time and it is checked for all of those things once a month. Our equipment is on the older side we get things fixed whenever possible, meaning, we cannot find parts for some of the older machines so they eventually get pulled off the floor and used for parts. I have had no one come to me about any of these things he is saying other then him. We have about 2000 members. he has been trying to get out of his membership for a couple of months and due to us having 1 year contracts they must be fulfilled and then they can be cancelled. He wants out of his membership and does not like the answers he is getting.  I would like to add that he comes here almost every day and if it were that bad would you come in here ?? Our steam is up and running Monday Thursday and Friday until 4:00pm and Tuesday and Wednesday until 8:00pm the hours it is not open we do not have the staff to take care of it or keep watch to be a safe environment for our members. The basketball court roof has been done and no leaks for over a year now. Thank you.

  Customer response

  10/26/2022

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  

  the response provided by the facility does not hold ground with its members. I firsthand witnessed many locals coming in to play basketball this past winter of 2021/2022 any being denied due to the leaking roof and buckets on the floor. I have provided photographs showing mold on the ceiling tiles in the fitness area. 

  I also disagree with the statement that she has not had anyone come to her about the facility and its wellbeing when you can look at yelp reviews, or google reviews, and they are all stating the same problems. 

  Regards,
  
  ****** ******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩